Pakistan urges Trump to step in as peacemaker as tensions with India rise

Pakistan has reportedly urged the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to help defuse tensions with India in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, called Kashmir the “flashiest flashpoint" in global geopolitics and the root cause of tensions with India. Sheikh added that Donald Trump should intervene.

“If we have a president who is standing for peace in the world as a pronounced objective during this administration, to establish a legacy as a peacemaker — or as someone who finished wars, defied wars and played a role in de-confliction, resolving the disputes — I don’t think there is any higher or flashier flash point, particularly in nuclear terms, as Kashmir," Newsweek quoted Sheikh as saying.

"We are not talking about one or two countries in that neighbourhood who are nuclear capable. So, that is how grave it is," he added, referring to China, India and Pakistan.

While India has always adhered to the Shimla Agreement of 1972, which stipulates that all issues between the two countries should be resolved bilaterally, Pakistan has time and again dragged one nation or the other to become a mediator in the Kashmir issue. Islamabad had also threatened to pull out of the Shimla agreement altogether after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack.

Several Pakistani politicians have claimed that an Indian military action was ‘imminent' and have been creating a hysteria of war for the past few days.

The Pahalgam terror attack

A group of terrorists attacked tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam last week, killing 26 people, including 25 Indian nationals.

Since then, tensions have been high between India and Pakistan, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving the armed forces full operational freedom to choose the time, target and mode of the country's response. This comes after the union government put out several measures against Pakistan for its support of cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan, in anticipation of an Indian military action, has deployed large numbers of troops along the LoC and the International border. Several Chinese howitzers, air defence systems are also said to be in place. It has also violated the ceasefire along the LoC for seven straight days till Thursday.